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Indulging in things that are nothing less than bliss

Cool breeze blew into my face as soon as I got down from the office bus. That, the fact that weather was amazing and that it was a Friday evening, all combined to lift my mood. I who have been reading droolicious posts since sometime now decided to cook something special this evening.

I came home, cleaned the house a little and set straight to bake a chocolate banana cake while making up my mind to also cook Yengai* for dinner.

I baked the cake in my microwave as I don’t have a convection oven. It is easier and quicker without compromising the taste. While I was fiddling with the cake, S got hungry and ate a chapati** with leftover vegetable curry. I finally set the cake in the microwave and the long 4 minute wait started. Saliva secretion started in my mouth as soon as the first waft of the sweet and Choco aroma of the cake touched my nose. The smell itself was so damn delicious. After 4 minutes I still wasn’t sure if the inside was done properly, I inserted a knife to check and it turned out clean. But I decided not to take a chance and spoil the cake I baked after God-knows-how-many-years. So I put it on microwave for another 40 seconds. We couldn’t keep our hands off it for too long and dug right in when it was still warm. And it was awesome. We both ate huge pieces of it. Since I used a small bowl as I am avoiding sugar and fat right now, I baked only a small cake. I saved the other two pieces for my sisters.

Here is the wonderful recipe that I am eternally thankful for. I forget the link where I found it, but I’ll dig it up and link the original recipe. I did tweak it though. And here is mine.

Sorry for the low quality image, I only had my mobile handy.

Chocolate banana microwave cake

Ingredients

– these make a small cake though. If you want bigger one, be sure to double or triple the ingredients.

– Beat sugar and butter/oil for 2 min
– Add egg and beat for 1 min
– Mix milk to this and keep aside
– Sieve together flour, salt, cocoa powder, baking powder
– Mix the sieved powder ingredients
– Fold the flour into the sugar/egg/milk mixture
– Mash a whole Banana using fingers. Leave little chunky pieces.
– Add mashed Banana to the mixture and fold.
– Grease/dust a microwave bowl. (this hasn’t worked out for me until now, but I do it anyway. I’m planning to skip next time and check)
– Pour the mixture into the bowl
– Shake it lightly so any air bubbles are burst and the top layer is horizontal and settled.
– Bake it on high for 4 min
– Check in between
– Cool for 10 minutes and dig in.

After eating enough cake and packing the rest for the sisters, I started preparing for my next dish – Yengai. This also turned out to be yummy but we both didn’t have much appetite, so it gets preserved for tomorrow’s breakfast as curry for chapati. Again, while cooking, the aroma made me drool. Am I turning into a major foodie?

There is still some water left when this pic was taken, I let it boil sometime after this

– Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl. Don’t add water.
– Wash and cut the stems of aubergines.
– Cut cross (cut vertical, turn 90deg and cut vertical) on aubergines leaving 1/4 inch near the stem-cut.
– Open the aubergine at the cross-cut and fill the mixture by pressing it into the gap caused by the cut so it completely fills out the gap.
– Fill all the aubergines and keep aside.
– Take 4 tbsp oil a considerably large, almost flat and thick bottomed wok.
– Put it on low flame over the stove.
– Start placing the filled aubergines into it.
– After all of them have gone in, put the remaining mixture completely into it.
– Pour 1 small cup of water around it so it get cooked and doesn’t stick to the wok.
– Close the lid on it and let it cook for 5 minutes.
– Stir after 5 minutes to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom.
– Add more water until the mixture becomes curry like. You can vary the consistency of the curry, however, it is not suggested to make it too watery.
– Let it cook for 30 minutes under closed lid.
– Make sure to keep checking every 5-10 minutes and stir.
– Check taste and add whatever you feel is less.
– Try to cut the tip of an aubergine with a spoon to check if it cooked completely.
– Put it off the flame when it is still a little hard but cuts under the spoon.
– Close the lid and let it sit for sometime. This completes the cooking process. and the curry gets the perfect consistency.

Serve with chapati. Authentically served with Jowar rotti or Rice rotti***.

With that ends my day on such a delicious note.

Next on my list: capsicum curry, drumstick sambar and rajma masala.

* Yengai is a north Karnataka(South India) dish prepared from small round brinjals/aubergines or small organic green bell peppers/capsicums. It literally means yenne+kai which translates to oil+the vegetable used int it as the authentic dish uses a lot of oil.

** Chapati is the indian flat bread prepared out of wheat flour.

*** Rotti is a Kannada word for which Hindi is roti. Akki rotti is rice roti and Jowar rotti is, well… made from Jowar flour. It is just like chapati but the sticky nature when wheat flour mixed with water will not be present in these rottis.

I have once tried to bake eggless cake in microwave but it failed. I haven’t tried again. You can try and let me know if it will work 🙂
The yengai turned out to be so yummy, I had some just now for dinner. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
Just skip ucchellu pudi if you don’t get it there, it simply gives it that vivid north karnataka flavor 🙂 To adjust the sourness, you can add a little bit of powdered kadle and some more grated coconut. I just use the rolling pin and roll kadle to powder.